@kingshark Isn’t Costa at Mercedes now?
Also, I agree with most of your original choices for this like; Vettel – Schumi, Webber – Barrichello, Rosberg – Hakkinen.
Although I’d say Senna is more of a Piquet Jr, he certainly has credentials; (2nd in GP2), but is unlikely to have got to where he is without the name.
I’ll also add:
de la Rosa – Verstappen: Around for a few years, enjoyed little success except for the brief occasion when they were in good cars.
Glock – Panis: Lots of potential, things didn’t quite go the right way for them in their earlier careers and then got stuck in poor cars.
Kovalainen – Frentzen: While his teammate won the championship, he only won 1 race, after another year at the same team with the same teammate he was beaten again in a much worse car. He then moved to a back-of-the-grid team alongside Mike Gascoyne and proved that he is a quality driver.

Now thinking about it, Alonso isn’t really anything like Prost. Prost was as precise as one can get. Alonso makes him occasional errors. However, I do firmly believe Alonso is a better driver in the rain than Prost was.

Now thinking about it, Alonso reminds me of Schumacher a lot. Think about it, they both achieved their first and second consecutive championships under management from Briatore, from the team of Enstone; Schumacher with Benetton and Alonso with Renault. Both of their championship years had some controversy of the legality of the car. In Schumi’s case it was traction control, in Fernando’s case it was mass damper.

Now, by the age of 30 both Schumacher and Alonso had/have fought for the title 4 times, been declared runner-up once and were/are both double world champions. However, in order for this trend to continue Alonso needs to win the next five world titles though, and that’s easier said than done. :P

Mind you, I certainly do not believe Alonso will win every single title until 2016 before he retires to match Schumacher in statistics. However, I can see him leaving F1 as a four-time world champion.

Alonso’s driving style and attitude is also a lot like Michael. He’s a charismatic and nice guy in the paddock, but on track they’re both all business; willing to do anything to win. Both Schumi and Fernando aren’t necessary the best at one particular driving speciality; such as overtaking or qualifying. But rather, they are/were both the most complete drivers of their time. Both are/were also a bit of wet-weather specialists.

Does anyone else think that Alonso is very, very similar to Schumacher in that respect?

I find the rest of your comparison just about spot on, though I don’t see how Alonso is very much a wet weather specialist. He’s good in the wet, no doubt, but I’d take a Vettel or a Hamliton over him in the wet any day. His two wet wins have come from an engine failure, and his defensive skills.

I too like to point out that Alonso is a lot like Schumacher and I’ve already explained it in my previous post. Also, Vettel is a Fangio. Likes to qualify high, preferred on the front row, and dominate the race. That’s just the way he likes to drive, perhaps not the most exciting, but damn efficient to achieve success.

@kingshark it is indeed a very efficient, safe and clinical way to win. IMO, the smartest way.

Having had the good fortune of being in the paddock recently though, I don’t think Alonso is really Mr. Congenial. He’s not rude/mean/a jerk, but he’s not the superfriendly type. He’s actually quite reserved and shy in person. In terms of interpersonal relations he’s one of those people who seems to need to really be broken in with a crowd – he needs to really feel at home, then he communicates fluently with them.

IMO Schumacher and Alonso is an interesting one. On all the people I talk to, they say that neither is a “naturally” adaptable driver. Both are “analytically” adaptable. They look at the cars, and work with the engineers to find out the “theoretical best” line and driving style for the car. Incidentally, this means they’re not very good development drivers, as they’re driving with the best compromise on setup already.

Tell that to Schumacher’s record of being either extremely lucky or knowning how to help develop a car (Benetton 1991 to 1995, Ferrari 1996 to 2002).
Or compare it with Senna, who wasn’t able to help develop Lotus (when he joined it was number 3 on the grid) or McLaren (who got worse/less dominant instead of better, over the years).

I hear what you’re saying @magon4 – but I also hear what my paddock friends say, and given that some of them have worked with Schumacher and Alonso before, I put more credence to their words than an audience/fan’s perspective.

A driver is not essential to the car development. A driver can help – that is all he can do – but he cannot drive the development process. At the heart of it, it’s still the design department that does drawings and puts them onto the car.

One of them gave me an interesting anecdote – back in the Irvine/Schumacher days, if you gave them both a car, then added on a part that gave the car 6 tenths, Irvine would speed up by 6 tenths – Schumacher 2, because he was already outdriving any instability/understeer problems the car had.